Speegs

Don't be afraid to travel, I promise that it's worth it. I live in Texas too and went all the way to Portland, shoot me a message if you want my story. It's frustrating how limited the HT options are in Texas, so be picky, don't settle, vet hard and take your time. And say NO to chains or robots.

How's your clinic look after Hurricane Harvey, were you guys spared the worst of it and left unscathed to continue seeing patients? Hope your team is safe and dry and spared the brunt of tragedies.

No one should be making guarantees of growth, but whatever person is guaranteeing you 85 percent doesn't sound confident in their work, because so long as your physiology is cooperative and you follow post op procedures delicately as directed, modern techniques more often than not provide 90 percent plus growth for FUT procedures performed by capable hands.

Wow, my apologies for the picture creating some sort of buggy code in the post, one that made the edit feature disappear. Mods, please feel free to clean that up, that was not my intent, I do apologize. I was attempting to show you a picture about how unsuitable such a scalpel is for hair restoration surgery.

A butcher's tool, stay away from one.

Too many factors unknown here, such as your hair characteristics, that buzz cut disguises your density and prevents us from knowing the full extent of thinning as well. Ballpark number for that type of deep recession would be 3000 at least in order to get convincing density. Very likely you'll need two procedures to restore hairline and frontal third density.

It's too early to know but eyeballing some of the spacing of your grafts I would think it likely that you'll desire more density later. Your recession was greater than a Norwood 2, you look more like a Norwood 3 case. Make sure you're taking preventative treatments such as finasteride or else this aggressive hairline will look suspicious down the road if the hair behind it doesn't stick around.

A well balanced diet and finasteride and/or minoxidl are really the only things you can do with any sense of control over your hairloss. You could also investigate laser light therapy and the many devices on the market that may help, a number of doctors are warming up to their effectiveness now that there has been time to observe them in action. I know Dr. Gabel, once a sceptic of them, is confident about implementing Capillus products into his practice now. And I remember when I first met Dr. Gabel that he was very cautious about the legitimacy of the therapy, but time and data has won him over.

I think it's a question of naturalism mostly, what will look like nature placed it there? The front of the scalp has loads of blood supply, so I wouldn't think it likely an issue of "safety" as the grafts in the front usually have high survival rates due to the generous amount of blood they get.

I wouldn't take anything harsh for the scalp if not absolutely needed, I've had it drip on my forehead and make my forehead dry and feel scaly...so be careful.

To be honest, it's fair to expect to have at least two transplants for density sake. It all depends upon your hair characteristics and expectations.

Namely this thread is remarkable just because of the envious opportunity of the patient to have both of these highly sought after surgeons work on him simultaneously.

Was your transplanted hair transplanted into places where existing hair might still fall out? Have you been taking preventative treatments to try and prevent further loss or slow it down (rogaine, finasteride)? It's also possible you're experiencing a seasonal shed, which many transplant patients do, in which the hair in the transplanted region looks a little thinner for a season while shedding. It's also possible for a careless doctor to graft donor hair from outside of the safe zone into your hair and it will be susceptible to miniaturization, more common mistake in FUE than FUT. And of course in some instances regrettably some people don't have a DHT proof donor area, and it thins with age. All possibilities to consider, if you're concerned I'd reach out to your doctor or a new one for a consult.

I have a delicate balance in my shampoo regimen to try and keep scaling at bay, it's tricky to find the right routine, I recommend experimenting with Nizoral a time or two a week and pulling back or adding more washes depending upon how your scalp responds.

Um wow, you had two of the best doctors in the United States at your disposal...that's unique to say the least.

I agree, time is valuable, and in demand physicians have the prerogative...complimentary consults are a nice courtesy though, but I get it if doctors can't do it forever and have to manage demands on their time with consulting window shoppers or people just exploring their options.

Well, just in case, a butter bar is a military slang for a 2nd Lieutenant, called such for the fact their single gold bar insignia resembles a bar of butter;)

As of 2009 the Army permitted enlisted recruits up to the age of 42, naturally their PT standards were lower. And OCS (officer) candidates had to be no older than 29 at the time of their commissioning as a Butter Bar.

UPDATE: His name is OtherSyde, and here's a link to one of his threads about his procedures. I encourage you to reach out him in a private message or on his thread and encourage him to discuss with you here on this thread for the benefit of any other vets that are wondering the same things you are. http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/187757-1303-fut-hairline-dr-gabel-9-months.html

Fine haired candidates with fair skin are a challenge, I should know, because I'm one of them. That's a drastically beneficial hairline for this patient, believe me, Dr. Gabel has been a wiz with density for fine haired people, who require more grafts than most to get a satisfying density.

I know Dr. Gabel (he did my procedures too) has a patient that's active duty Navy I believe. He posts here regularly and has had three procedures, just like me. He might chime in soon. I'll see if I can find him on here and let him know about you.

I'd go in person for a consult with a reputable doctor if you can, but based on that first picture I wouldn't want to operate on you.

You can just encourage people to speak out about their experiences on forums like this, and file complaint with the Florida medical board. I don't know the specifics of your case or any other with him so it would be wrong for me to advise a legal recourse, but sometimes when there are multiple suit worthy cases that can be proven then there can be a class action lawsuit to pursue for various victims. You'll have to talk to other unhappy patients of his and see if their complaints were ever rectified and ask the Florida medical board what they think about complaints concerning the doctor, legal recourse is a last resort that I'd only pursue if you have an airtight case and lots of fellow unhappy patients with airtight cases.

Sounds terribly uncomfortable for a patient and potentially traumatic to the donor, also sounds like an invitation for added opportunities for infection.